After reading everyone's story about bloating, I am wondering if anyone has tried routinely eliminating certain "troublesome" foods from their diet, and if so, what were the results? I hear that many people are lactose intolerant, but are unaware. Unlike food allergies, food intolerances do not involve the immune system, so are harder to identify.

I am having bloating issues myself - I work out five days a week and have cut most "bad" carbs from my diet. I don't drink soda - at least not often - and am at a loss as to why I bloat. I have no pain, or fatigue, or digestive issues other than the discomfort of bloating. Well, I am depressed since no matter what I do I seem to bloat.

Well im not sure about that, because i never ate "bad" carbs and i dont eat any junk at all, if i had it on my holidays, that couldnt be the problem, because i didnt bloat when on holiday!
like at all...

Nysiek, thanks for posting your success story. I hope you will post again and let us know that you are still doing well. I had my gallbladder removed weeks ago and there has been no change in my bloating/distention. I'm considering a grain-free diet; will probably try and elimination diet first. My life has been completely ruined by this.

Like everyone else here it is nice to see I am not alone in this frustrating situation. No matter what I ingest, even water, I bloat out like I am six mos pregnant. It is completely embarrassing. My daughter came up to me while I was sitting down and she attempted to '"push" mommy's stomach back in because it was sticking out' - she is four. I used to be very petite before my last pregancy - I have three children. I have gained 70lbs in 4 years! It is disgusting to me and it is hurting my marriage! My husband is not attracted to me anymore! And I don't blame him. The past three mos alone I have gained 20lbs and I don't know why! I was an athlete most of my life, a runner and a gymnast until my 30s! Now at 36 I can't even run a mile without massive pain and fatigue. I work out on my stepper everyday and I hardly eat a thing. Small meals, soup mostly, salads, and water or green tea. But I am tired all the time, my periods are very irregular, my body hurts all the time, my skin is a mess. I have been tested for everything under the sun! Everything comes back normal. I have been to a Rheumatologist, Internist, and a Homeopathic as well as several different GYN's to make sure it wasn't hormones. All normal! I do have a few small fibroids, but that is it. I was told it was probably Fibromyalgia and Irritable Bowel, but that is only because they have nothing else to pin it on. I have gone from a size 2, to a size 16 in four years. HELP!!! I want this to go away - but it just doesn't seem to get any better. Everytime I get on the scale I have gained another pound. I have been told it is depression and put on antidepressants now. I now have tachycardia, high resting heartrate and hypoglycemia,I was told it was from weight gain...hah!

I was just reading your post, did the naturopath prescribe domperdione to you or did you have to go to a medical doctor?

kmas wrote:Hello everyone, I haven't figures out what is wrong. It seems as though I have a slow gastric emptying. They are still not sure why but it may be nerve damage. Whenever I eat it takes a long time to go through me and also some does not. I have tried a colon cleanse from the naturopath which cleaned up my system and now I am on domperdione which stimulates the nerves when I eat to break down the food. I have not bloating in 1 months since taking the pills and have lost 12 pounds. I reccommend a slow gastric emptying test. Good luck

hi,
i dont have an amazing diet or great excercise all the time,niether am i too lazy to move!i have regular periods(touch wood!)wit normal flow,my pms also is not very long,but still i am bloated and puffy around my periods.i am about 5-6kgs overweight,but look fat.i dont know how to help myself with this problem.
could u pls advice something?
thanks

Hi kmas and everyone else!
I read all the entries and was grateful to learn that I'm not alone (and neither are you). I have been dealing with this same problem for over a year and several months ago I had had enough so I enlisted the help of a friend who is a doctor and these are some things we learned. First of all, I am a 41 year old female. I'm not allergic to dairy, but I have developed a severe intolerance for it (there's a difference between allergy and intolerance). Even the most minute amount of dairy will cause me extreme discomfort, terrible bloating (yep, makes me look preg. too), swelling of the glands in my neck (which causes my face to swell) and swelling of my hands and feet. Then I have to deal with the constipation that follows. Not fun!
It took a long time to figure out what was causing my symptoms. I went through the scratch test and blood test and discovered I'm not allergic to anything so my doctor said it was a food intolerance. The next step was to eliminate certain types of foods. The two most common types of intolerances are lactose (the sugar found in milk) and gluten (protein found in wheat, rye, barley and oats). I started by eliminating lactose and taking lactose pills when necessary. That didn't work, I was still having symptoms. The next thing I did was eliminate all foods that contained gluten. That didn't work either. Then my doctor had a hunch and suggested I completely eliminate all dairy products. Within 48 hours I knew that was the answer. By cutting out all dairy we discovered that my intolerance is to the protein found in milk products, not the lactose.
Now that I know what causes my symptoms, I have to be very careful about what I eat especially at restaurants. For instance I recently went to a cafeteria and I asked if the mashed potatoes contained milk and I was told they didn't (some places use a non-dairy creamer). They were wrong, the mashed potatoes DID contain milk. I knew within the first 30 minutes after eating them. So beware of what you are eating.
I too experienced weight gain when my symptoms were at there worst and I lost several pounds after getting my diet under control. Since then I have put on a few more pounds, but I can only blame that on myself and my poor eating habits. I started watching what I eat more carefully and hope to lose 15-20 pounds.
This is just my story but perhaps my experience can help someone else. The only suggestion I have is to keep eliminating certain foods until you find the culprit. Once you discover what's causing your symptoms, I promise you'll never eat those kinds of foods again. My friends know how much I love cheese & sour cream and they cannot believe I don't eat them anymore. Why would I put myself through that kind of pain??
I hope my information has helped someone. We're all in this together!

Bloating is usually a result of hormonal or mineral imbalances that trigger excess fluid retention in the body. One of the best natural remedies is progesterone, which is added to creams and absorbed transdermally.
I have also have found 1 drop of thereuputic grade essential oil of peppermint in a glass of water will help for bloating and reflux. (only use peppermint oil which is label for therapuetic and internal use) For more information on some products that may assist bloating, indegestion and others let me know.
Regards
Gary

Hi everyone, I just to want add some more info to work with on the matter. I am only 21, this problem started when I was 20(bout 10 months ago). A quick history, I am lactose intallerant and have been, I have always had some bloating due to that(i never stopped eating dairy), so I don't believe its a food intollerence because my bloating is about 10 times worse now and I eat less dairy than before, unless food intollerences can get worse(I'm no doctor).
I found the weight gain weird because I myself come from a family of human eating machines, in other words. From exception of the last 10 months, I could eat anything, I could eat pure bacon grease everyday and not gain weight, I once ate over a half pound of bacon, 3 eggs, toast, and cereal everyday day just for breakfast(you get the idea). Never gained a pound(5'11'' 135lbs), in fact if I slowed down to much I lost weight, everyone was jelious of our family because we were all like that as well as my relatives.
So the point is, this is without a doubt something wrong, I feel sick, lazy, the works.
Now I found 3 things that I don't think I saw in the posts that go along with our symptoms Ulcerative Colitis, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth. Last but not least is, I went to a fitness and health seminar and the training spoke of a intestinal problem that caused, bloating, firm/round stomach, etc. He recommended some sort of intestenal flush,(which I forgot what it was called) wanted to see if that rang a bell. I am contacting him about what it was called. I have not prosued any of these as of right now but, I intend to find the answer so I will definately let you know how all these go.

Dear Identity101: Funny you should mention ulcerative colitis. I have it. I was diagnosed with "non-specific ulcerative colitis" about 6 years ago. I was having constant constipation, significant weight gain, etc. but I was not experiencing the food intolerance back then that I do now (at least not that I can remember). I was prescribed Asacol, but after 6 months and hundreds of dollars later, I stopped taking it. I was told that another "cure" (for me, anyway) was to significantly increase fiber in my diet. So I did. Now at least 5 days a week I will eat raw brocolli, usually dipped in some sort of salad dressing, as my mid-day snack. It's loaded with fiber. I also eat oatmeal for breakfast, sprinkled with 1/2 cup of FiberOne cereal, also loaded with fiber. My diet is pretty bland, but I no longer deal with the issues of the colitis as I did before. My "cure" worked for me, maybe it will help others too.
I have never heard of intestinal bacterial overgrowth, but will certainly read up on it. And I have never heard of an 'intestinal flush,' but if you get more information, please provide it here. Thank you.

Glad to hear there are many people that share the same problem as me. I have ups and downs with my bloating problem over the last 5-7 years. It seems anything I eat or drink - even a cup of coffee - my stomach starts to bloat. I have had abusive diet in the past but am much better over the last few years.

My bloating is a bit strange though - I have done pretty much most of the "standard" gastro tests ... and the doctors have not come up with anything concrete except to say its IBS. I dont suffer any other symptoms - I have no pain, no constipation or diarrhea, no discomfort, no gas, no belching, no acid reflux - nothing. Just a very uncomfortable bloat of my tummy ... very much like when you fill a baloon with water it swells immediately. My tummy is the same.

The strange thing though is that suddenly for no reason at all, my tummy goes flat for a few months at a time - I can eat anything and my tummy will not bloat. This has happened at different times in my life, different times of the year, different countries ... so very hard to pin point why this happens.

The only thing that my last gastr doc said to me is that since I dont suffer from the usual IBS symptoms, it maybe worth to do a "Capsule Endoscopy" even though I have done a regular one and nothings wrong. He said that with this kind of endoscopy, it will be able to show what happens to food the minute it enters my mouth.

I was wondering if anyone has done a "Capsule Endoscopy" and has it yielded positive results? Or if anyone has any advise that I can follow to find the cause of this very annoying bloat that I just cant seem to find the cause for.

I'm a 16 nearly 17 year old girl, and I get this bloating all of the time, and I end up looking 5 months pregnant!! I also get evil glares, as if,
'you're far to young to be a mother!' And I'm not even pregnant!!
I went to my doctor, and she told me that I just need to drink more water... this hasn't helped at all and it's starting to get me down...
Does anyone know what this is? Please Helps!! Thanks...